Lincoln manager picks police chief candidate

Town Manager Lisa Goodwin said she has a finalist for the position whom she plans to offer to the Town Council for review at its regular meeting on Feb. 8.

“I know it’s a good candidate,” Goodwin said Monday.

If the council approves her candidate, whom she declined to identify, a job offer will be tendered, Goodwin said. If the candidate accepts the job, he or she could start within three weeks of that acceptance, allowing at least two weeks’ notice to the candidate’s present employers, she said.

“I believe we could have a new chief in the beginning of March,” Goodwin said.

The town has been searching for a permanent replacement for former Chief William Flagg since he resigned his position on Aug. 25 to pursue a teaching career. A Milford resident, Flagg took a full-time but temporary position with the Penobscot County Sheriff’s Department, his former department, as a patrol officer, filling in for another officer who is on an extended leave of absence.

The search was restarted in October when the first attempt ended with just six applicants, a number Goodwin and the council deemed insufficient. Previous searches had drawn as many as 19 candidates.

Fire Chief Phil Dawson, a retired state police officer, has acted as the department’s interim chief since Flagg left.

The department also is hiring to replace Officer Chad Chubbuck and Sgt. Kevin Giberson. Giberson left the department to rejoin the Millinocket Police Department, while Chubbuck said he was fired for failing to comply with the town’s residency requirement, which mandates that officers live within 15 miles of Lincoln.

Town officials had rejected his appeal of the requirement, and he described the parting as amicable.